


Heavy Questions, Heavy Answers

by afteriwake



Series: Just Pieces On The Board [9]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angie Martinelli Knows The Truth, Comforting Pepper Potts, Dysfunctional Family, Extramarital Affairs, F/M, Family Drama, Family History, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Legacies, Mementos, Men Crying, Mentioned Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa - Freeform, Messy, POV Tony Stark, Paris (City), Peggy Carter Is Tony Stark's Biological Mother, Promises, SHIELD Family, Sherlock Holmes & Tony Stark Friendship, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, Sherlock Holmes Has a Heart, Tony Angst, Tony Stark & Molly Hooper & Sharon Carter Are Related, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Tony-centric, Unplanned Pregnancy, mentioned Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, pre-S.H.I.E.L.D.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 01:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Sherlock tracks down Angie Martinelli, who tells Tony the whole story about his family history.





	Heavy Questions, Heavy Answers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dreamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/gifts).



> I wanted to write this for ages and spent a sleepless night in the van rereading parts of this series and decided heck with it, I'd write it today even though I'm not really supposed to be working on non-WIP Big Bang stuff at the moment.

The text from Sherlock was very succinct: _Have information. Come downstairs._ He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the whole sordid story of his parentage, but still. If Sherlock knew something, at least he was giving him the opportunity to hear it in private and decide how much the others in the family knew.

He knew he’d tell Pepper everything; there weren’t secrets between them. Maybe Molly and Sharon as well; they had Peggy in their lives as long as he had, though in different ways, and that’s how they were all related, after all. Steve and the others...he’d see. They all knew Peggy was his biological mother but the rest? He wasn’t sure what he wanted anyone to know, and it all depended on what Sherlock had found out.

What had surprised him when Sherlock opened the door is that it wasn’t just the two of them. There was an elderly woman there, and he had a very good idea exactly who this was. “You must be Sharon’s Aunt Angie,” Tony said with a warm grin. For being as old or at least nearly as old as his mother had been, Angie Martinelli-Robinson looked surprisingly spry and very, very sharp.

“I am,” she said with a warm smile. “And I hear you want to know more about the whole situation with your mom.”

“I do,” Tony said with a nod, sitting next to her while Sherlock moved discretely away to get a tea service.

“Peggy loved only two men in this world as much as she loved her husband,” she said. “One was Steve Rogers, and the other was Daniel Sousa. But she loved them in very different ways. From stories she told about the war, she and Rogers had a much more developed relationship than the history lets on, but boy, did she get the short end of the stick with that. And Daniel was there to pick up the pieces later. He was a good man. Loved your mom like she was the Queen of England.”

“I heard he was a good man from Molly and Sharon.”

“Yes. That damn agency tore them apart, and that’s a shame. Daniel and Peg both deserved so much more. You see, your mom, she knew SHIELD had been infiltrated, and she tried to fight it from the inside. She and Chester and your father didn’t want the Nazi bastards brought over, but this order came down from the President. And then they got to Daniel, and...” Angie shrugged. “He wasn’t the same. And Peg, she made it her mission to get the filth out of the place. I wasn’t supposed to know all of the details, I wasn’t even supposed to know she was a spy, but she trusted me.”

“With good reason,” Sherlock said. “I could barely get you to crack.”

“Well, I didn’t realize you were family at the time. I haven’t seen Margaret in ages, not since she lived Stateside for medical school. You had told me you were her husband first off I wouldn’t have shut the door in your face.”

“Touche,” Sherlock said, serving the tea.

“Now, this was all before she met the man who she had your niece’s parents with. She did love him but after losing Steve and Daniel, she closed herself off and dedicated herself to the work. And she changed. So did Howard. And neither were really changing in healthy ways. One night, before Howard’s wedding, they had a case that went wrong, and they drank a bit much. Maria always knew he had a wandering eye, but she let it slide. Then she found out she couldn’t have children. Some result of an accident. Your mom found out she was pregnant while they were on their honeymoon.”

Tony nodded, letting it sink in. Two broken people seeking solace...there were so many variations of that story, so many of those stories told about others. How many other times did his father play a role in stories like that? But that wasn’t the question he wanted to ask Angie. “So Peggy gave me to my father and my mother?”

“There wasn’t anything else she could do. Her husband loved her but he’d have left her if she knew she’d carried another man’s baby. She took a SHIELD assignment in Paris, where single pregnant women were often sent by families who didn’t want the shame, and then Maria visited and they had a talk. She said she’d rather raise Howard’s child than see him put up for adoption in France. All Peggy asked was to know. And Maria agreed. Peggy had you with Maria by her side. Your father was off in California, trying to make the company bigger.”

Tony was quiet. “That must have been hard.”

“Peggy was usually so good at compartmentalizing, but she couldn’t put that behind her for a while. Stayed in Paris past the assignment, got back to her pre-pregnancy weight, tried to hide the signs. And then her husband came there and begged for her to come home. Said he knew about it all and he just missed her. So she’d worried for nothing, and as she saw the way Howard treated you the love she had for him festered. She hated that he treated you as less when she and her husband could have loved you so much more. But your mom. Your mom did right by you, Peggy always said that. She respected Maria and Maria respected Peg. But...that’s the story.”

Tony had some of his tea. “Thank you, for telling me in person. It’s not the best thing to hear, but knowing that I didn’t have to hear it secondhand.”

“There’s more,” Sherlock said to his uncle-in-law.

“What?” he asked, surprised.

“Just because her husband knew didn’t mean she wanted to rub his face in it. She left things with me, and they’re over there.” She pointed to a box Tony hadn’t noticed before. “Letters she wrote while pregnant, pictures from times when she was with you and Maria when Maria would also take pictures of the two of you. The baby blanket she made to keep her hands busy, and a few other things. She wanted to make amends with her husband, and she was happy with him until he died.”

Tony got up and embraced Angie, a move that seemed to surprise him more than her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. You are a good man, you know. You do the Stark name more pride than your father ever did. Peggy and Maria would have loved that.”

Stark grinned at her as he sat back down and Sherlock expertly steered the conversation to other stories involving Angie and Peggy from the old days. It was a good afternoon, and when Angie took her leave, leaving Sherlock and Tony alone, it seemed as though some weights had been lifted while others had resettled. 

“So the old man really was a bastard,” Tony said.

“It appears so,” Sherlock said. “But the women in his life loved you. That counts for something.”

“I guess.” Tony looked over at the box and then went to it, picking it up. It was heavy but not so heavy he couldn’t carry it. “Thanks for getting me answers, Sherlock. Not sure they were what I wanted, but I think it’s what I needed.”

“Tony,” Sherlock said as Tony began to walk to the door.

“Yeah?” Tony said.

“If you want to talk, remember I have a mad sister who tried to kill me. On some level, Molly and I understand deep, dark family secrets.”

Tony nodded. “I may take you up on that. But for now, I want to have some privacy and go through these.”

“Of course,” Sherlock said. “We’re here if you need us.”

“Good,” Tony said before turning back to the door. “Good.” 

He made his way out and back up to the penthouse and then saw Pepper was there, looking at something at the table. He set the box near her, went next to her chair, knelt down and put his head in his lap. “Tony?” she asked, instinctively starting to stroke his hair. “What is it?”

“Promise me you will stay with me, no matter how hard it gets,” he said. “And I promise I’ll do the same. We don’t run off on each other. We stick it out.”

“Absolutely,” she said. “We’re a team. We’re a good team, even when we disagree. What..what happened, Tony?”

“I found out about my mom and dad and Peggy and I don’t want a repeat of that I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want you to hurt me.” He lifted his head up and she framed his face in her hands.

“Anthony Edward Stark, I promise, I will do my absolute best to never hurt you,” she said. “Not the way the other generation of your family hurt each other.”

Tony nodded and felt the first tear fall and in an instant Pepper was off the chair and on the floor with him, holding him close as he sobbed. He’d asked heavy questions and gotten heavy answers, but he had then now and he had his best friend and the love of his life to move on from here while he sorted those answers out.


End file.
